Fedora Weekly News Issue 268

Welcome to Fedora Weekly News Issue 268[1] for the week ending March 23, 2011. What follows are some highlights from this issue.

Our issue opens with announcements, including details on Fedora being accepted into the 2011 Summer of Code, as well as notice of some changes to the packaging guidelines. We're looking for a permanent writer for the Marketing beat, but we have a short beat this week that includes weekly team meeting minutes and some thoughts on expanding the SXSW Fedora photobooth to other FAmNA events. This week's In the News beat has a whopping ten articles on Fedora 15, Gnome 3 and other topics, and Ambassadors brings us current on happenings in that team as well as FAmSCo. In QA news, details on this past week's Test Day on preupgrade, today's Power Management Test Day, and next week's ABRT Test Day as well as other working on Fedora 15. Security Advisories offers the latest security-related packages for Fedora 13-15, and our issue finishes up with another LATAM installment of Spanish FLOSS goodness from Guillermo Gomez, this week on the audio manipulation package, SOX. Read on!

An audio version of some issues of FWN - FAWN - are available! You can listen to existing issues[2] on the Internet Archive. If anyone is interested in helping spread the load of FAWN production, please contact us!

If you are interested in contributing to Fedora Weekly News, please see our 'join' page[3]. We welcome reader feedback: news@lists.fedoraproject.org

Fedora accepted in to Google Summer of Code 2011!

So... after a year's hiatus, Fedora's been accepted in to Google's Summer of
Code program for summer 2011!

If you're a university student looking for a job this summer, start thinking
about some awesome idea that you'd like to make happen in Fedora this
summer. Applications will open March 28, so start talking with developers in
IRC and mail, and find something awesome to do! We have a list of some ideas
at: [2] but don't
limit yourself to that list. Find a mentor, and make your idea happen!

Mentors should apply to be a mentor[3] in Google's Melange instance. be inviting those who are listed on the Ideas page. We've still some work to do
before the student applications open, some scaffolding to build, and some
things to decide, so please join in. I'll be sending mentors more information
soon.

[Guidelines Change] Changes to the Packaging Guidelines

"Here are the latest set of changes to the Fedora Packaging Guidelines:

---

The Emacs packaging guidelines were updated to handle cases where a
package's principal functionality does not require (X)Emacs, but the
package also includes some auxiliary Elisp files to provide support for
the package in (X)Emacs.

The section on Boostrapping in the Treatment of Bundled Libraries page
in the Packaging Guidelines has been amended to add the following:

Packages which are built in such a bootstrapping mode must not be tagged
for a final release (or pushed as an update for any stable release). FPC
will track the progress of approved bootstrapping exceptions via the
ticket requesting the bootstrap bundling exception.

These guidelines (and changes) were approved by the Fedora Packaging
Committee (FPC).

Many thanks to Hans Niedermann, Jonathan Underwood, Pavel Zhukov, and
all of the members of the FPC, for assisting in drafting, refining, and
passing these guidelines.

As a reminder: The Fedora Packaging Guidelines are living documents! If
you find something missing, incorrect, or in need of revision, you can
suggest a draft change. The procedure for this is documented here:
[10]"

The above packages are on the list but do not allow Fedora Localization teams to upload the translated files. This means that these

packages will not receive any translation from FLP. Please change the
setting to allow FLP, or advise us if the maintainers choose having
their own translation teams. In that case, the packages may be removed
from the list of Fedora Project on tx.net."

Fedora Events

The purpose of event is to build a global Fedora events calendar, and to identify responsible Ambassadors for each event. The event page is laid out by quarter and by region. Please maintain the layout, as it is crucial for budget planning.
Events can be added to this page whether or not they have an Ambassador owner. Events without an owner are not eligible for funding, but being listed allows any Ambassador to take ownership of the event and make it eligible for funding.
In plain words, Fedora events are the exclusive and source of marketing, learning and meeting all the fellow community people around you. So, please mark your agenda with the following events to consider attending or volunteering near you!

SxSW photobooth awesomeness and its future

Clint Savage discussed[1] strategies for making the "SxSW photobooth awesomeness and its future" more universal to FAmNA events.

"As you probably know, I've been hanging around Fedora for a few years now. I helped improve the events that Fedora attends by creating the Fedora EventBox. It's been going really well, but this week, I saw a big improvement because of just a few people at SxSW. I would like to thank Mo, Emily, Spot, Jared and anyone else who helped make the booththere awesome!

. . .

But there's more we can do with this, and that's where I think the value lies. For one, it is cool that each participant get's a nice little card printed right there with a QR code so they can go retrieve it. But it would also be nice to let them share their photos on social networking sites like Facebook, identi.ca, foursquare, twitter, etc. I can also see gaining contributors from this concept, in that they are now 'part' of Fedora's legacy. Maybe having them show up on the FedoraProject front page when an event is happening? I seriously think that this is stuff that everyone in Fedora would love."

Tim Burke: Ext4 Is Not Going Anywhere Any Time Soon (muktware.com)

Rahul Sundaram forwarded[1] a posting on btrfs and its relation to ext4 in RHEL and Fedora:

"Red Hat engineers work actively to develop these features in the upstream kernel, work both with the Fedora community and others to integrate them for early adopters and then evaluate when they are robust enough for enterprise users."

"File systems are very long lived in the field since users tend to maintain them for years and years. In many cases, enterprise users have external storage so the storage will survive several generations of servers. That means that ext4 is not going anywhere any time soon! That said, Red Hat is an active contributor to the btrfs project and we are
actively working on getting some of the key inhibitors for wide btrfs deployment finished with the upstream community"

Linux shakedown: Testing both GNOME 3 and Fedora 15 (ZDNetAsia.com)

Rahul Sundaram forwarded[1] a very positive article on both Fedora 15 Alpha and Gnome 3:

"Because this release was so focused on GNOME 3, it was hard to even really notice Fedora 15 in the background. That says a lot about where Fedora is heading. The OS, underlying the desktop, was about as solid an alpha release as I have ever laid fingers on. And running from the live CD was incredible--if someone were to sit at this computer (the very PC I am writing this article on) and begin using the desktop, they would never know they were using a Live CD.

I realize that many of you look down on Fedora for one reason or another. But this testing release should not go unnoticed by the IT public. The GNOME 3 testing release of Fedora 15 is crucial to the growth of both Fedora and GNOME. This release will go a very long way in the testing of what will soon become the default desktop for many Linux distributions (for a very long time). So please, do your fellow Linux community members a favor...test this release and submit bug reports. Your help will be much appreciated and long remembered."

Rahul Sundaram forwarded[1] another review of Fedora 15 Alpha and the next version of Ubuntu:

"Fedora boasts a pretty “enterprisey” software set. You’re more likely to find a fancy new virtualization program than a 3D shooter here. That’s not to say it’s inappropriate for desktop use, quite the opposite, but expect to find some applications that might not be of much interest to a casual PC user. Still, for those who do like to know, you can expect to find:

Using SELinux and iptables Together (Linux.com)

"One of the things I have wanted to do with SELinux for years is figure out a way to make SELinux and iptables work together, but each time I looked at it, my use cases became too complicated. James Morris and Paul Moore worked on a tool called Secmark way back in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 5 time frame. My simple implementation of Secmark is to use iptables rules to define labels on packets as they flow within an SELinux system."

Out with Windows 2000, in with Fedora 14, part 2 (ZDNet UK)

Rahul Sundaram forwarded[1] part two of an article from a user who replaces Windows 2000 with Fedora 14 on an older PC:

"Other than these issues, the PC is running great and in fact they immediately noticed a significant speed increase in running their applications. I was surprised that still some tweaks were needed, but when dealing with proprietary hardware/software, we will continue to see these types of problems. My best advice is to direct new users to the Fedora Forums which are very understanding for new users."

Speedy 'Wonder Patch' Debuts in New Linux Kernel (PC World)

Rahul Sundaram forwarded[1] about the debut of a new patch that increases the linux kernel speed significantly, and which will be available in Fedora 15:

"Back in November I wrote about the 233-line patch that was expected to bring a huge speed boost to version 2.6.38 of the Linux kernel, and that's just what made its widely anticipated debut on Monday night"

"The Systemd configuration management technology was available as a technology preview in Fedora 14, but now replaces Upstart and SystemV init as the default initialization system. Systemd is claimed to speed boot-time as well as to provide on-demand loading and unloading of services. Touted Systemd features include system state snapshoting, as well as the ability to track processes, daemons, and sockets.

In the Lovelock alpha, a dozen desktop daemons have been converted to use Systemd service files, while a small number of programs have been patched to take advantage of it, says the Fedora project. Systemd is said to be compatible with legacy SysV init script

For those Fedora users with their heads in the cloud, one of the more interesting additions is BoxGrinder, touted as "an easy to use command line tool to create appliances (virtual images) from simple plaintext application files." BoxGrinder is available for platforms including KVM, Xen, VMware, and EC2, says the project"

My Wife Loves Gnome 3 (muktware.com)

"The most important remark for Gnome 3 came from a non-techie. A user who doesn't much care about kernels and mutters; someone who uses computer to do her job. My wife was sitting right behind me when the machine booted. "Wow...what's that!" I heard someone from behind. I turned and found her looking at my machine. "Is it a new OS? It looks cool!"

I was amazed. As a regular user I was a bit upset with Gnome 3 fearing it will break my usage pattern and here was an ordinary user who was impressed by the new design and approach."

Playing With Fire, Fedora 15 and Gnome 3 (muktware.com)

"I love the design, look and feel of Gnome 3. I am worried about is how is it going to affect my productivity, but I don't want to be too negative before I see the final product. It may just be the status-quo factor bugging me. I don't know. I may end up loving it, the way I love KDE 4!"

Neville A. Cross wrote [23] about marketing and promotional efforts by Microsoft at Nicaragua involving funding events on condition of talking about/demonstrating inter-operability. Fedora Ambassadors contributed from their experience [24] in similar situations and provided guidance about how to deal with situations arising out of such partnership requests.

Bertrand Juglas informed [25] about the acceptance of the virtualization workshop at LOAD

Buddhika Kurera informed [26] about Fedora Project being accepted at the GSoC2011.

Summary of traffic on FAmSCo mailing list

Caius Chance posted [1] about specious fraudulent transactions in reimbursement in the Bangladesh Community. Max Spevack suggested [2] that all sides of the story need to be heard and listened to before an accusation of impropriety. Pierros Papadeas pointed out [3] that this specific thread was "officially halted" until the issue is resolved and addditionally informed that FAmSCo would have a private meeting with all parties.

Neville A. Cross asked [9] about the time for the FAmSCo meeting in conjunction with the time changes associated with DST. The thread [10] includes discussions around a time that is good for FAmSCo members to attend. And further discussions around meeting time occurred on a different thread [11]

Larry Cafiero asked about [12] a possible mistake in months (March in place of April) in the meeting minutes and received confirmation that it was indeed a mistake and the intended month is April.

Test Days

Thursday 2011-03-17 was preupgrade Test Day[1]. A good group of testers showed up, but testing was somewhat complicated by underlying bugs in anaconda. However, the testers were able to check that most of preupgrade itself was working as intended. Rui He posted a recap to the list[2].

This Thursday, 2011-03-24, is power management Test Day[3], where we'll be testing how well various common power management operations work on a range of systems. The main focus of this event is to check common power management features on a wide range of hardware, so we really need as many people as possible to come along. Please come out if you have a bit of spare time.

Next Tuesday (note the special day!), 2011-03-29, will be printing Test Day[4]. We'll be aiming to test out Fedora 15's printing stack with as many different printers as possible, so if you have a printer and a pulse, please come and join us!

Next Thursday, 2011-03-31, will be ABRT Test Day[5]. As well as checking that ABRT (Fedora's automated crash report tool) is working as expected for Fedora 15, we'll be testing out a big new feature, the retrace server[6]. This allows you to submit crash reports to a remote server which will generate the backtrace - avoiding the need for you to download and install often large debuginfo packages in order to submit reports. Please come along and help us test this exciting new feature!

Release criteria revisions

Adam Williamson proposed several alterations to the release criteria[1], covering several issues that had become clear at recent blocker meetings. The alterations attempted to account for bugs that were specific to particular keymaps or languages, cover firstboot, cover unintended installations, and clarify a few other points. Andre Robatino proposed an additional criterion requiring a working media check process in the installer[2], an idea Adam supported[3]. James Laska recommended caution to avoid tying the criterion too closely to a specific implementation[4].

Nightly builds via Koji

In response to a query from Gregory Woodbury about nightly builds being stalled[1], Kevin Fenzi explained[2] that this was due to a problem on the compose machine. He went on to announce that the nightly builds would soon be done via Koji, which will result in the builds happening much faster, guarantee that they are built in exactly the same way as official composes, and allow for an archive of recent nightly builds to be kept, making regression testing easier.

QA group governance

Jóhann Guðmundsson raised some questions regarding the governance of the QA group[1], including the idea of an elected board to handle some decision making when representing the group as a whole. Stephen Smoogen noted that SIGs do not generally have formal voting structures[2], while leaving open the question of whether QA is (or should be) a SIG or a Steering Committee. Clyde E. Kunkel noted that the functions of the QA team are mostly advisory rather than decision-making, and expressed a desire for an organization chart (or 'wiring diagram') for the various groups that make up the Fedora project[3]. Adam Williamson pointed out that the Board had worked on such a diagram at FUDCon Tempe, and a copy of the image may be available[4]. He replied to Jóhann's question about the status of Red Hat employees in the group by saying they tried not to see their position as giving them automatic decision-making power on behalf of the group, but admitted that in practice, other groups often seem to come directly to the Red Hat employees in the group and consider their responses as representing the QA group as a whole.

Fedora 15 Beta preparation

The second Beta blocker/nice-to-have review meeting took place on 2011-03-18[1], and the team worked through the full list of proposed Beta blocker and nice-to-have bugs. The first automated Beta acceptance test run was scheduled for 2011-03-17, but this was not possible due to underlying issues in anaconda at the time, as discussed at the weekly meeting of 2011-03-21[2]. At the same meeting, James Laska noted that the Beta test compose was at risk due to the same problems, and committed to providing updated images to test candidate fixes for the problems.